Gourley Gossip

Valentines Day

2012-02-14T14:24:00.000-08:00

Just Saying...Wouldn't mind

Honesty time-I HATE Valentines day. I think my hatred dates back to Junior High School where I was mocked mercilessly for my uncoolness and as they termed it "beast"iness. I never had a boyfriend--even through high school and always felt bitter towards a holiday where all the cute, stick thin, popular girls got showered with gifts and my parents threw me a pity dinner with a small gift such as a flower or some candy because they knew how much I hated the holiday. Looking back I can now appreciate their efforts, but at the time it made me feel ultra lame. Now one might say, "Hey Shellese now that you are married Valentines day should be awesome!" Or "Hey, at least you are no longer ugly" But I guess I just can't shake the nightmares from the past and I still hate the holiday.

First Time I went to Vegas with Justin. We hadn't even kissed yet. So Handsome and strong!

The ONLY saving grace to this lame holiday is my Handsome Husband! In law school we were so poor we decided not to purchase lame gifts for each other because a stupid holiday told us to, but instead cook a really nice meal together and enjoy each others company. This has become one of my favorite traditions. Let us review meals of the past--It all started with Justin surprising me by cooking Ravioli and we ate it on a blanket in our living room and he called it an "indoor picnic" so cute and so fun! Other years we have done rack of lamb, manicotti, one of my favorite years was recreating the spicy lentil soup from Carabbas. It took over 3 hours, but it was SOO good, and it was fun to cook with Justin for 3 whole hours (during law school he didn't give me much time-rather his books). This year we are going to be cooking Prime Rib ( a small one people), mashed potatoes, carrots, rolls, and I am making a special Chocolate Raspberry ganache cake. So excited!

Mr GQ. His Groomal session. He is seriously so HOT! I married a very attractive man.

Justin is quite the romantic for those of you who don't know him very well. He always has a new nickname for me-currently it is either Freckles (I don't have any) or Little Tiny Baby Cat (which is very weird since I am neither a cat or a baby, but I'll take little tiny :) ) My very first nickname while I was dating, engaged, and the first part of our marriage was Cutie. I thought I was going to be Cutie until I died so I engraved a message on his ring and signed it "Love Cutie".

Poems are very romantic and so to make this post semi pro-valentines (with his permission) I am going to post a poem Justin wrote about me. (He said I had to copy write it---psh lawyers) I may not love Valentines day, but I do love my husband and think that taking the time to celebrate each other and our love isn't that bad of an idea. Maybe one day I'll love the holiday, but for now I'll focus on the love Justin and I have for each other. This is my favorite poem he has written about me, and I feel so lucky to have married a man that loves me this much.

Cutie
You do something to me that I can't describe,
Whenever I'm with you make me live.
Cutie, my Love, you are everything to me,
Each time I'm with you I constantly want to give
My whole heart to you.

You do something to me that I can describe,
You help me to enjoy life more and more.
You calm my worries, and lift me up,
To you, my Love, I want to pour,
Out all of my heart and soul.

Every time that I'm with you I fall in love over again,
Your beauty and charm have stolen my heart!
Cutie, my Love, you mean so much to me; I love you, and I always will!
From you I never want to part,
From you my Love, my Joy.

You change and mold me into the better man,
That I want to be for you my love.
You make the earth stop with your smile,
And Every time I'm with you I give praise above
For the blessing that you are to me.

I love you so much Hun! Happy Valentines day from your Cutie, Freckles, or Tiny Baby Cat:)

Friday was good

2012-02-13T09:26:00.001-08:00

AWESOME day today. So after many sad and okay days, I had an awesome day on Friday. let us read about my peak of Friday-my peak would not be one event, but rather focused around one person...Jenesee. Jenesee is a great friend I have here in Vegas and she is a lot of fun and super talented. If anyone needs a haircut or color she is your woman.

The day started with her coming over and cutting and dying my hair. I need to take a picture so you can all see how awesome it looks. I seriously feel like a new woman-amazing how a simple hair treatment can make you feel so wonderful.

This is what their salads look like, my mouth is watering right now

After the hair we had lunch at chipotle. I am hooked on their salads. They are super filling, delicious, and I am going to say healthy because I then feel better about scarfing said food. The corn salsa is to DIE for---okay maybe I wouldn't really die for it, but I might fight for it... ( I went and added it up and my salad was 670 calories...really?)

After lunch we went to D.I. and wandered around looking for hidden treasures-I found two cute decorations that I snagged up for a whopping total of 2.75. WHAT A STEAL! I just may go there more often. After living on pinterest my brain was going wild of what I could create from all the stuff at the D.I.

Our party continued to Bed Bath and Beyond where I purched something fun as a gift so I can't say what---but it is good.

The day ended with the fun times of my cousin Race Boy crashing on my couch for the night. I love visitors, especially relatives.

Friday was so good I don't know if I can think of a pit....I guess waiting to find out about my cyst is an everlooming pit. and maybe cooking dinner can sometimes be a pit? a stretch I know. Great to have such a fun day-very much needed and appreciated.

Oh the Joy and Oh the pain

2012-02-13T09:11:00.000-08:00

Pit and Peak of the day people! so I really kind of enjoyed writing about my pit and peak of yesterday and thought it would be good to do every day. I think realizing the pits and peaks help you to better value and appreciate your peaks. After writing about my big fat pit of a cyst I felt so much better. I was able to look at it with a new light and not feel so horrible inside. I guess when people say write how your feeling it will help you isn't a bunch of bull.

Today's pit was Justin doing our taxes and discovering that we owe this year...wawawa. I mean really a break would be nice. I guess on the flip side at least he has a great job. I hate taxes, I hate the government taking out taxes and then saying huh well pay us more.

Peak of the day would be cleaning my room. Three words...I hate cleaning. I have to say though, I love the finished product. I would compare cleaning to exercising. Painfull while doing said activity, but once done the feeling of satisfaction is rarely matched. I sleep in clean sheets tonight!

On a side note, I wanted to put the weather as my peak again, but having a clean room really is awesome. The weather has been amazing lately. In the 70's. It has been like a dream in February. Love Vegas, Love warmth, Love my man! Everyone should come visit me.

p.s. post was written on 2/9, I just got around to finishing it.

The Pit and the Peak

2012-02-09T09:30:00.000-08:00

So I kind of hate blogs...Everyone posts all the good in their lives on their blogs, no bad, so when I read their blogs I think their life is perfect (even though I know that is not true). Confession time. I kind of like the Kardashian show. I think the reason why is because they show everything about theirl lives. Even the bad-the fights. So the Kardashians have this thing called the Pit and the Peak of the day. So I think my blogs will start to have a pit and a peak. This post will mainly focus on my pit of yesterday. Now I want to preface this by saying I don't want any woe is you, I'm so sorry comments. this is purely theraputic. I have all these feelings and I thought why not write about them.
Okay peak of the day yesterday was definitely the weather! Yesterday was crazy warm and it is February people. I mean the temp felt like it was in the 80's. I was rolling around in a skirt and short sleeved top and flip flops. (BTW I looked pretty cute-just sayin) I mean really? At 6:00 at night it was 59 degrees. I think everyone should live in Vegas, especially if you are one of my family members. PLEASE!

Okay the Pit---Yesterday was probably the worst day of my life thus far. I am sure there will be worse to come, but yesterday was pretty bad. I went to my OBGYN yesterday for my yearly only to discover that I have yet another cyst and it is massive....7cm massive. He said it is bigger then my uterus (Too much info?) My OBGYN thinks it is either a tumor or cancer. He does not think it is cancer because I am so young, but man he does not realize my family genes. I spent last night crying with a million fears and questions running through my mind. I had to have one cyst removed last year on February 16th and that was the most painful thing that I have had to do to date. those of you who know me well will know that I do not do pain very well. When I was young I sprained my ankle and made my poor aunt push me around in an office chair because I was in "so much pain" and couldn't even put pressure on it.

If you follow me on Pinterest you will notice all of the quotes I pin are about strength to keep moving forward and faith in God and His timing. And pinning the quotes is all fine and dandy, but seriously how do people who actually do have cancer keep going. Just doing Invitro is so draining emotionally and physically. At least it is a happy procedure. I just don't know how people keep going.

Put aside the mass on my ovary--i mean they can take it out biopsy it and I go forward, but now my plans to do Invitro (IVF) have temporarily been put on hold. I have been trying to have children for 2 years now and have been muchos unsuccessful. I have done three transfer cycles of IVF and two retrieval cycles. I was going for another transfer next month, but now who knows. I was feeling so good about this one, I really thought I was going to get a baby. I feel like I just can't catch a break or my breath for that matter. I feel like I used to be this super fun vibrant young women and now I am a paranoid,worried, sad, angry girl. Now I'm not this way all the time, but I am right now.

I love being in Young Womens. Lst week the lesson was on Joy. We spent part of the lesson talking about how to find joy when you are having trials and hard times. Everyone can just have the perfect answers-prayer, count your blessings (that one was my addition) service, etc. I have prayed, counted my blessings, and served my husband (does that count haha) and just can't seem to shake my tunnel vision off. I know there are others in worse situations and I really shouldn't be complaining--I mean really I don't know what it is or the plans yet, but it just feels like a big blow at the most inopertune time. But then again I can't see the bigger picture. This may be a huge blessing down the road.

Through this all I have major support. I have 2 families that love and support, a testimony in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and most of all an amazing husband. I love him very much and am so glad we found each other almost 5 years ago. I can't imagine going through life without him. I think it is important to realize that I am not depressed or bitter towards God or the world. I feel like sometimes as members of the church we should be the best and just trust in God and get over our trials super fast, but I think it is okay to cry and mourn and be angry for a time. I mean Christ wept, mourned, and even got angry and threw out the money changers in the temple. I have noticed that when people are going through hard times we always say well it is okay, God loves you and everything will be okay-pray about it-and so forth. I am someone who has always said this until of late. Sometimes people just need to feel the other emotions and it helps to heal. Sometimes they just need people that will say yes, that is one bad day. We don't lose our faith in God because we cry or are angry at a situation. We are just human.

Sorry for the semi downer post-hopefully next one will be a much better Peak.

2012

2012-02-03T07:48:00.000-08:00

Okay so I have been inspired by all those around me to update my blog. Maybe once a week I'll get on here and write some thoughts. If i take too much time I will not want to blog-so don't expect anything big HAHA.

My man in HANDSOME!

Life is good...the past year was pretty hard for me, but I have come to the realization that life really is good. I am sooo blessed. I have 2 wonderful families and the best husband. 2012 is already shaping up to be the best year (I feel it in my bones and my heart).

2012 started out by Justin taking me horseback riding for my birthday. SO CUTE! I was super scared because horses are so tall, and I'm tall, so whenever I'm on a horse I feel like a giant. Plust you alwasy see in movies horses bucking people off or hearing of people who get injured, but I sucked it up and had the best time! Our guide was the bomb. He even gave me a horseshoe at the end that he found on the trail. Thus contributing to my feeling of goodluck in 2012.My horse was the bigest and his name was Franklin. Justin rode a slightly smaller horse names Scout. They were both awesome and held up like champs. I decided that horses were not that scary, but rather amazing animals and we have already booked a second trip through Groupon for later in February. Justin's dream is to own horses some day. Who knows...personally I think they would be too much work, but they are pretty fun to ride. LOL Justin and I are the weirdest people we are like gangster cowboys living in the big city...just doesn't seem right. First step to turning Justin into a true cowboy is to get that man to like some country music. Right now i'm just enjoying my time with him.

getting my kiss on during the ride.

My sisters from the Gourley side. We are HTL!

Me and Matthew in Mexico

Already I have been to Indiana to visit my sister (in-law, but she is really my sister). Her year started out with her son in the hospital for pneumonia and her other baby sick so I flew out to give a hand for a week. It was so much fun. Both of her boys were doing much better by the time we left. If any of you go to Indiana make sure you go to the Children's museum it was the BEST! and if you go, haha, make sure you visit the Barbie exhibit and walk to runway and design a dress. I really am such a kid. I Love her little boys so much and I love her and her husband. I'm actually tearing up thinking about how amazing her family is. I am so lame:].

amazing sibling! cut out the boys at the end and you see how cute me and my sisters are from the Nelson side! We are Ridiculously Hot.

I then flew to Utah to spend some time with my family. This was the best trip home I have had in a while. Every night at least one of my brothers and sisters were over. We played games, stayed up till 2am making macaroons, went shopping, went indoor skydiving (AHHHH so scary), I got to spend lots of time with my nephews who are SOOOOOOO CUTE, spent good time with my grandparents, and I sewed a skirt the day I left. Every day was jam packed and some of the best times were spent doing the simple things...like making macaroons or playing rook before the debate, or the car ride up to Ogden. I most enjoyed getting to know my 2 sisters Brooke and Erika. They are each amazing and bring so much into our family. I am so glad I have them as sisters!

Who knows what the future holds for 2012, but so far I have another horseback riding date, 2 sibling graduations (Way to go Parker and Scott!) a possible trip to Disneyland, and hopefully something big!

Boating

2009-08-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

HAHA okay so it has been basically ForEVeR since I have blogged. I am sitting home this whole week (with the possibility of the next month if my school district stikes) with nothing to do. If it was up to me I would just go shopping every day, but reality check I do not have that kind of money so I figure I will blog and clean:) I bet Justin will be happy with the second half or that sentence.

Our good friend Johnny has a boat and the other day we went boating SOOO FUN. Here are some pictures of our adventure. We boated way into then night and it was such a freeing, no stress experience. It was gorgeous all around us! I may hate the rain here, but let's be honest it is a beautiful state. Johnny and Justin had so much fun driving super fast (As you can see by my massive gums and hair billowing in the wind). It as kind of cold too so I was in Justin's Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Jacket (yes super in style I know!) We each got a turn at driving the boat, though I prefered just sitting in the back watching everything around me. It was SOOO FUN!

Kentucky

2009-04-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

So Justin is studying for finals and I've watched enough T.V. for the rest of my so I thought hey, I haven't blogged in FOREVER so here is a couple of updates :)

The official scale they use to weigh in the Jockeys before each race! (Below)

In February I rolled to Kentucky to help out my sister-in-law as she birthed her first child, little super cute Matthew Ryan Baker!! He is sooo adorable and super cute! We had sooo much fun. When we rolled up to KY the baby had just been born 10 minutes ago. We rolled to the hospital to find Ashley looking the BOMB! I mean seriously when i pop out my children I hope I look as gorgeous as she did!!! WE got to spend one night in the hospital, which was way fun. When the baby got home we had much fun changing diapers and doing touristy fun stuff. I LOVED the slugger museum, Colonel Sanders grave (KFC started in Kentucky!), touring Bakers Dentist School, and Churchill downs was off the hook. Here are some pics

In front of Colonel Sanders grave. He is way tight! (above) All the pretty girls at Churchill downs-Isn't the horse pretty? (Below)

Me hittin it up at the Slugger Museum!

Entrance to the Slugger Museum-I loved the huge big bat and Ball in the side of the building.

Teeth that Baker has been collecting for a MOlars project..EWW he had several of these in his locker (Above). Baker showing off his locker and his lab coat! (below)

Bakers station at the dental school--he even has his own name plaque!

Mom G and Stephanie sporting the WIC letters. (Below)

Churchill Downs--isn't it GORGEOUS!!!!

PUPPIES

2009-01-31T21:33:00.000-08:00

Justin and I went and saw some super cute puppies today! LABS! I LOVE labs...especially chocolate labs. There is just something so comforting about them. Dogs in general are very comforting to me and I cannot wait till Justin and I buy one. I used to tell Justin he could get a dog as soon as I got a baby, but after seeing those pups I'd buy one before. (Just don't tell him that). A couple in our ward breeds dogs and they just had a litter of 9 puppies. I fell in love with all of them! It is kind of sad though becuase the runt of the litter has water on its brain and will have to be put down. The pressure on his brain is making his eyes pop out. I feel so bad for the little pup and would have taken him home immediately.

Here is a movie of the pups and some pics!!!

Tagged--6 Random things

2009-01-29T19:30:00.000-08:00

Okay so I am horrible with Tags and all this stuff, but my good cousin Vanessa tagged me and I love reading her blog (Seriously Vanessa you should become a writer! your blog is well written, fun, personal (I feel like i'm sitting there talking to my best friend), and funny!) so hopefully you all enjoy reading these 6 random things about me. Now this may be more than you'll ever want to know about me, but maybe not :).

1. I have a true love of big POOFY hair. Growing up I used to stare longingly at chearleader hair...they had the most beautiful perfect poof! I could never figure out how to get my hair to be that beautiful. Finally I figured out the wonderful world of teasing!!! I would have big poofy hair everyday if it wasn't so socially unacceptable here in Seattle. Whenever I have big poofy hair my day just seems better, more sunshiney! If any of you have seen the infomercial for the "bumpitz"that would be my dream present!

2. I LOVE the feel of the kickback after shooting a gun. Seriously I don't know what it is, but I feel super sexy and tough after shooting a gun that has a kickback....although if I'm really honest I am usually scared right before I shoot the gun for the first time.

3. This one is kind of gross, but hey you asked for random and this is as random as it gets....the smell of toilet water makes me throw up. I know super gross, but to be honest again, it comes in handy when I'm feeling super sick...you know that feeling where you are like "if only I could throw up I would feel a million times better."

4. I do not like to sleep closest to the door. I make Justin sleep on the side of the bed that is closest to the door...that way in case somebody breaks in there is one person before me....here is another random fact that deals with somebody breaking in Justin and I have run "intruder" drills where he has me hide behind the bed. Weird?

5. I have an obsession with Marshmellows...especially stale marshmellows. When I buy a bag of marshmellows I leave the package open on purpose so that they become stale. I also like to microwave the mellows with chocolate chips than stick the cup in the freezer and eat it when it is hard and chunky. Everyone should try stale or frozen marshmellows

6. This last one is kind of embarassing to admit, but Justin told me I have to include it on my list because it is his favorite one of mine. I love cartoons--my favorite cartoons are Curious George, which if i'm honest, I do a fabulous impression of George's voice saying hello! I also enjoy Cyberchase, which is so beyond dorky and embarassing, but I find it entertaining....my mother always makes fun of me for watching cartoons, but I cannot deny my love for them. It is super cute becuase Justin will purposely turnon Curious George for me when i'm tired or feeling sick...he gets pretty excited as well!

Well I hope that was fun for all to read...I'm going to tag Emily, Stephanie, Ashley, Jennica, and Trent boy!

Over the Break

2009-01-21T19:17:00.000-08:00

Over the Break we had tons of fun....1 week was spent in Utah with the Nelsons and the other week in Vegas with the Gourley's. we had so much fun each week, I think this was the best Christmas i've had yet. It was packed with all my family (Scott home from his mission, brooke and stan married with little Gregory) and almost all of Justin's (Ashley and Baker we feel so bad we missed you!) Instead of spending the next 20 minutes writing this long blog about everything we did i'm going to list our top 10--5 from utah, and 5 from Vegas, in no particular order and post a bunch of pictures!

1. Jiggle (nerf) Wars
All credit must go to Dr. Floss on this one. about 8 nerf guns and ammo were purchased and
almost every night you could find us in the basement in our "forts" trying to shoot each other,
playing steal the flag, or running the obstacle course.

2. Shootin it up
We went out on the most gorgeous day in Vegas (67 degrees!) and had a couple of hours of

just shooting potatoes and onions! I LOVE shooting my gun! and the Mouser, and I found out
I really like the Springfield Armory XD .40 caliber! AMAZING! There were only two injuries.

Justin's finger got slammed in a .22 pistol and Uncles finger got caught on the hammer.
Nothing better than shooting with your family!

3. Lotto for $50 with the Gibby's

My dad had this great game where we embarassed ourselves to get tickets, the tickets were

then put in a basket and drawn out. if your name was drawn you had to either take the prize
up for grabs or pass. if you passed the next name drawn had to take the prize and then

distribute his or her tickets. the last prize drawn for was a $50 dollar bill. it was hilarious

because everyone thought the more tickets you had equaled better chance at getting the $50

dollars, WRONG! it meant your name was drawn twice in a row for the prize you didn't want

in the first place. there became a mass of tickets being passed around like the plague that no

one wanted! I ended up with a watch, and Justin ended up with a movie that we already own

4. Gingerbread houses

I desperatley wanted to make a gingerbread house over the break. Justin, Brooke, and I

ended up making the most GLORIOUS house ever to be seen (Especially our Pez roof and

gummy lifesafer fence!) It took a couple of hours and was really fun to make with everyone--

including Stan's new dog Achilles.

5. Matching Pajamas

This one is a double for both Vegas and Utah! I matched with Brooke in Utah and Stephanie

and Ashley, and Mom G. in Vegas! Justin was super cute matching my brothers in Utah and

his in Vegas. I LOVE MATCHING PAJAMAS! I think it is a favorite tradition.

6. Food Poisoning on Christas Eve (Thank you Outback steak house!)

Let's just say no one was feeling good, especially stan during the watching of Luke 2 and

during our discussion of Christ!

7. Wedding dress shopping!!!

8. Crab Wars

This one is all credit for Justin. He created this from the beloved crab walk and just added

some rules and called it Crab Wars. Here are the rules in case anyone is dying to have a crab

war. 1. You have to walk on your hands and feet with Butt in air (crab walk) 2. the purpose is

to use your feet to knock each other down 3. the first person whose butt touches the ground

loses. Let's just say we discovered he who has the biggest foot is usually the King Crab!

9. Eating at Biaggis and moving tables 3 times!

One day we spent the afternoon in Salt Lake wandering around gateway. We ate at one of our

favorite resturaunts Biaggis. After being seated and eating bread, we asked to be moved

because we were by the door and it was freezing...after being seated they moved us again

saying that table was reserved...after being seated a third time we got a new creepy waiter

that "warmed up" my mothers hands and made weird jokes! YAY for moving tables!

10. Birthday celebratories in Utah and Vegas

My birthday was January 4th and I got to celebrate it with both of my families! In Utah all of

us went to PF Changs and had a delicious meal filled with fun and laughter and of course the

Great wall of Chocolate (Probably one of my favorite desserts). I received a most fun gift

that I have been using very often....an IPOD! In Vegas my birthday was celebrated at Brio,

another one of my favorite resturaunts where I enjoyed VODKA pasts...everyone needs to

try Vodka pasta once in their life...especailly from this resturant. It was super fun with all

the peops there and I got some cash to spend on something fun and purely for me...some

Itunes maybe?? Justin and I attempted to recreate the masterful cake we made for Jan, but

alas it failed and even fell over in the fridge...it still tasted good to me...i think Angel Food

Cake is my favorite! THANK YOU to all for such an amazing birthday! (And Christmas)

We had so much fun with Both of my families and the break was Amazing. It has been so hard to come back espcially since Justin and I have bboth been battling some illnesses, but I think we are both on the upswing now! If we can just make it through this killer semester everything should be perfect for the Senior Year!

Christmas Time Fun!

2008-12-08T21:12:00.000-08:00

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas TREE! I love the Christmas season. December brings the Christmas season and Justin's finals. Justin has finished one and has 4 more to go :( I am sooo ready for Finals to be over. Justin has been wearing the same outfit for probably 3 days, a dog sweatshirt that is the same as his dads. He says he is "Tapping into his dad's Power". I sure hope it works!!!!

Now on to happier times! Justin and I are all decorated out. Some of the decorations are from my childhood and some are ones Justin and I painted together.

I am really loving our tradition of painting decorations for FHE...I'm really excited for Easter!! My favorite that we painted is one Justin picked out, a Christmas tree that we put Christmas lights in. IT IS SOOOO CUTE! And to top it all off, Justin put COLORED lights in the tree...I absolutley love the multi color lights! The apartment almost feels like home and it makes me soo happy. All I am missing is a really decked out Christmas tree with Gold twigs and birdhouses inside...Sorry mom :)

My favorite Childhood decoration are the CFhristmas blocks that say Merry Christmas. Every year we would fight over who got to put them up...now that I have them Justin lets me put them up and I love it!

12 days left till we get to go home and see family!!! I'm so excited to see all of you so get ready for some deluxe fun!

Missing, Loving!!

Birthday Boy Bash--26 BABY!

2008-11-24T21:17:00.000-08:00

SO Saturday the 22nd was my man's birthday and since, lets be honest, I am horrible at blogging when I should I am writing all about the good times today. I love Justin so much and am going to start this blog off with 10 quirky/grand things about him so you can all get to know him better.

1. After eating pizza for dinner he needs 2 glasses of water by the bed because he wakes up so thirsty
2. Eating rich or too much chocolate makes him water under his eyes--he says they "sweat"
3. When his feet are getting tickled he cannot keep his eyes open
4. He is obsessed with going to the gym
5. He is even more obsessed with looking at puppy pictures on the internet and on t.v.
6. Every night within 5 minutes of cuddling in bed he does what he calls his "nightly flop"
7. He loves snowmen
8. He has a new found love of Vodka Pasta sauce
9. One of his favorite things to do on a weekend is to wander Target for 2 hours
10. He has us run "intruder" drills at least once a month practicing what we would do if someone broke into our apartment while we were sleeping

Now on to the good stuff his B-day! Justin's actual birthday was pretty chill. We slept in and started the day off by going to the gym (see number 4) personally I would skip the gym on my birthday... When we got back Justin opened up some presents. I gave him a charcol BBQ. Ever since going to our friend's Logan and Emily fo r a bbq he has wanted to get one of his own. My parents gave him a bbq book which is amazin g and everyone should buy this book it is by Weber and is called "Real Grilling" We then went and got my hair cut and dyed (Which i'll post about that later my hair is 6 inches shorter--to my shoulder) and ended the night with a big ol' helping of mac n' cheese (per his request) and a mini German Chocolate Cake. Here are some pictures.

Justin Enjoying his Mac n' Cheese!(top) Justin Setting up his Grill(below)

Sunday was the real celebration. Justin BBQ'd up some goodness. He picked a recipe from the book and it turned out super juicy and tender. Johnny came over and brought some tasty chicken which also turned out delicious. Here are some pictures from the night in celebration!

Happy Birthday Hun I love you!

HalLoWEeN

2008-10-29T21:32:00.000-07:00

Okay people so lets be honest, I haven't blogged in centuries and I think I just blogged myself out last time and I needed a break; however, I am so ready to blog. In fact I have like 5 blogs I want to post, but don't worry I'm not going to go crazy and post them all tonight.

Since Halloween is only 3 days away I thought it appropriate to blog about our Halloween activities. Sunday we were finally able to carve our pumpkins. We bought them about a week before, but just never had the time to carve them up. It was way fun!!! We used the deluxe stencils because you can create some amazingly tight pumpkins. I tried to be all cool and do this haunted house, but I couldn't even trace it onto the pumpkin that is how hard it was so I went down.

I carved a creepy tree that says "Happy Halloween" in the branches and Justin carved a very cool ( I want to say cute, but that isn't very manly) window with a creepy cat and jack-o-lantern peering out. We had a lot of fun and I really want to carve another pumpkin. My dream is to one day carve a pumpkin that is over 100lbs. One day people one day!

So Monday we continued the Halloween fun into FHE with our good friends Emily and Logan and their super cute baby Sophie!! I have dubbed Emily the Cupcake Queen/Goddess! Not only do her cupcakes always look perfect, but they taste super delicious. These cupcakes were chocolate filled with, get this, Amaretto cream cheese filling. MMMM! Emily then showed us how to make super cute Frankensteins, Bride of Frankensteins, Skeletons, and Pumpkins.

Justin and I tried to get a little creative on our own and did not succeed so much. We both tried to bring the Joker to life on a cupcake, but mine looked like the creepy clown off "IT" and Justin's looked just plain creepy. Logan got creative as well and made a jack-o-lantern with braces and I swear that bunny is off of a cartoon line for line, I just can't place him. His crowning creating, the Batman call was eaten...by me. It was delicious!

I loved making the cupcakes sooo much that I am already looking at Christmas cupcake ideas and will be making them with the fam so be ready peeeps!

We had a blast with Emily and Logan and Justin had so much fun with Sophie. Here is a cute picture of her! Sophie is super cute and spent a good portion of the night digging/emptying my purse. I wish I would have taken a picture of her surrounded by my junk. Justin made her laugh by making a swish sound every time she hit his hand with a plastic hammer. She was super happy and Justin was super cute to watch like that. So our Halloween has been pretty fun thus far... to make it perfect I just need some cute trick-or-treaters to come visit our apartment so I can get rid of all my candy. Happy Halloween!

I'm an AUNT!

2008-10-03T19:58:00.000-07:00

This summer was absolutley AMAZING! NOt only did I spend the entire summer in Las Vegas/Utah, but my brother Scott came off his mission and My other brother Stan and his wife had a baby which makes me an AUNT!!!
My little nephew Gregory is the CUTEST little boy EVER! Every moment I had I tried to spend it with Brooke and little Gregory.

Justin got to spend some time with the cute baby and boy can we say scared!!! Justin has never really been around babies--he has never changed a diaper. I really wanted him to change Gregory's diaper, but that didn't fly so well.
Basically I love this little guy and i'm just going to put up like a million pictures of him so enjoy! The picutres of Gregory in Scott's mission hammick are my favorite! G3 was just fussin a mess and Scott put him in his hammick and he immediately calmed down. Put his knee up and was just chillin in the air. It was sooo funny.
I can't wait to see him at Christmas where he will be so much bigger and more interactive.

FHE Fun

2008-10-02T15:57:00.000-07:00

I don't know how other newly married couples feel, but I find it very hard to hold FHE with just the two of us. Justin and I decided to make a stronger effort to have FHE every Monday night and so far we are doing great!

Justin had this amazing idea for FHE one night. He decided we should go to Michaels and pick out Halloween decorations to paint and in the end decorate our apartment (Seriously don't you think that idea was AMAZING).

We spent about 30-40 minutes in Michaels picking out our items and paint. Right before we checked out Justin found this cool Fireplace mantle decoration kit from Martha Stewart. I think it is on my top 5 list of decorations. It totally brings to life the Halloween spirit. Here is what we ended up with!

To be honest Justin painted the pumpkins that night and I painted Frankenstein, but the rest were finished over the week. Seriously the pumpkins looks SOOOO real-didn't my man do such a good job? I loved loved loved this activity and have decided this will be an FHE activity for each holiday month!

Here you go check out what we painted and how cute our apartment looks all decorated.

Broken Keyboard

2008-10-02T15:39:00.000-07:00

So I have not been blogging in forever because the spacebar on my keyboard broke. It was SO ANNOYING! Seriously try typing a paragraph with a period in between each word, so hard.

We called around to Toshiba computer help stores and they charge $75 just to diagnose the problem, then add on the cost to fix it.

Justin being the super smart husband he is, researched Toshiba keyboard problems and found that you can just replace the keyboard. Now a new keyboard from Toshiba is like $80, but Justin went on E-bay and found a new keyboard for only $20.

My new shiny, non-greasy keyboard arrived last night and now I can type again and boy am I happy. Here are some pictures of us taking apart and putting together the new keyboard!

Sushi

2008-09-19T20:39:00.001-07:00

Tonight was a first for me, we went to a Sushi Bar with all the Law School buddies! Let's start off by saying I do not like seafood in general. I mean I can eat the occasional cooked salmon, but that is about it. When Justin announced that all his Law School buddies had chosen Sushi Land to eat at for our get-together the word TERRIFIED pops into mind first. Justin said we didn't have to go, but I really wanted to see all our friends.

We arrived at Sushi land and the atmosphere was really cool. You sit at a table and the sushi flows by on a conveyor belt that wraps around the whole restaurant. In the middle was all the cooks slicing, rolling, and preparing the sushi. I mean sushi looks really pretty, but the fact that it is fish just freaks me out.

I started out by ordering 3 orders of potstickers or gyoza as Justin tells me is the real name. As I'm waiting for my potstickers Justin starts eating tuna. I decided "Hey!!! I'm at a sushi place I cannot leave without trying some sushi!" So I popped the tuna in my mouth and it actually wasn't that bad. I figured if the tuna was that good I might as well try something else so I ventured into tempura, which was also pretty good. The texture of the shrimp was a little disturbing, but the taste was pretty good--almost like Raising Cane's chicken.

Overall it was a really fun night! We ended up with a big ol' stack of plates around 25! I love all our friends and I have to admit sushi is not that bad, in fact, maybe next time I'll be a little more daring! I would recommend everyone try sushi at least ONCE!

Angel---Food Birthday--Cake

2008-09-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend Justin and I made a deluxe cake for our friend's birthday. At first we did not know what kind of cake to make. Once we decided upon Angel Food Cake our creativity began to soar!!

We bought two loaves of Angel Food Cake, whip cream, and STraWBERRieS!! Justin had the grand idea to slice each loaf in half to create 3 layers instead of two. The cake started out by zig-zagging chocolate on the bottom of a white porcelain plate and freezing it so it looked oh so pretty--I love plating food, I love baking.

We layered Cake, whip cream, strawberries, chocolate, then more whip cream, cake and repeat! We had so much fun layering the cake and trying to keep it standing up straight. After all the layers were complete we covered the whole cake in whip cream. Justin spent a good amount of time making the whip cream all smooth and even--it was really cute.

The bottom of the cake was lined with strawberry halves-like a ribbon on a wedding cake. We zig-zagged the top of the cake with chocolate to match the pattern on the plate. Justin then had the beautiful idea to cut the strawberries into circles and put them all around the cake like polka-dots!

We had to drive the cake to Tacoma-a 25 minute drive from us. I had to hold up a sun shield the whole time so the whip cream wouldn't melt. Personally I think the cake is really cute and the neon curly candles on the top were very cute and whimsical! The cake was as delicious at it looked. Justin and I decided we could open a bakery making pies and cakes.

Happy Birthday Jan!

Hiking Mt. Everst (or so it seemed)

2008-09-14T22:06:00.000-07:00

Weather here in Washington is absolutley GORGEOUS so Justin and I decided to go hiking and enjoy the outdoors. On the 6th of September we decked out in hiking gear and headed for Mt. Si!! We were totally excited--our backpack was full of water, popcorn, chocolate twizzlers, and power bars. We had everything we needed for an amazing day. Eric reccomended we hiki Mt. Si since he hiked there on his mission with Ryan McClean.

Mt. Si is a 4 mile up and 4 mile down hike. We started out the hike excited for what lay ahead driving forward happily chatting little did we know what lay ahead. So Justin and I go to the gym every day and though we are not triathalon rcompeters I would say we are in decent shape. HAHA not even one mile up and we were panting totally out of breath and I was highly considering turning around.

The hike up was ABSOLUTLEY BEAUTIFUL! I've never seen such green, mossy, and serene looking teerrain. There were tons of hikers with dogs--each dog that passed by Justin would get all excited and tell me how cute it was and asked me what I would name the pupple. He would then get those puppy dog eyes begging me for his own dog :). by halfway up I was ready to die. it was still way fun though.

Once we reached the top it was one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen! Justin took off the backpack and his back had sweat marks in the shape of the backpack (gross!) There was this cute little chipmunk that sat right by us. I fed it popcorn and it was literally like 2 feet away from us. After resting up we started the hike down. I was so excited to take the hike down thinking it would be a breeze in comparison, but man oh man was I mistaken it was MURDER! The whole way down my right knee was burning. I had ot make Justin stop so many times so my knee could calm down. Justin picked out several nice walking sticks for me so I could take the pressure off my knee, but that didn't really help. I really did not think I would make it down.

We finally made it down the mountain and i've never been so happy to be in the car. After a week my knee was still in DEEP pain so I went to the doctor and got hooked up with the latest fall fashion--a knee immobilizer splint. I'm not supposed to move my knee for at least the next week. The mountain totally schooled me! But i would totally go hike the mountain again (though i don't think Jusitn would let me) All in all it wa an amazing Saturday up in the great NorthWest!

Point Defiance Fun

2008-09-04T21:14:00.000-07:00

For Labor day Justin and I were going to go hiking, but we slept in too late and settled for a relaxing day at Point Defiance. We had sooo much fun.

We started the day off at the beautiful duck pond. It was seriously the best duck pond I have every been to, it even had a waterfall. We saw cute turtles sun bathing on rocks and lots of ducks and geese. Anyone who has little kids should totally go to this duck pond!

Not far from the duck pond was a cute little garden showcasing the AMAZING flowers that grow here in Washington. Justin especially loved the flowers where the petals curled and created little pockets, as Justin describes them "they looked like balls." Some of these flowers were seriously HUGE! Close to the size of our heads. Someone at Point Defiance has a serious sense of humor because we found a "bed of flowers" Haha sooo funny.

Point Defiance also has a great beach--Olson beach. We walked the boardwalk and found this hole that totally looks like the sewer from the movie "IT". If you have seen the movie you know how creepy it was. All along the boardwalk was carved poems, quote, and sayings--it was fun to read them. For the way back to the car we walked on the rocky beach where Justin found this rock that looks like a brain. To go along with the brain there was this creepy goo that we had no clue what it was. Maybe a dead jellyfish or alien guts? I mean where did this creepy stuff come from?

All in all Point Defiance was such a fun day! As we left we had a little surprise--a visit from a raccoon family! Aren't they soo cute! It ended with one of the most amazing barbecued food that our friends Logan and Emily cooked. SO much FUN!

Flip Flop Friday: My Amazing Husband!

2008-08-29T22:30:00.001-07:00

So I have seen and heard that writing a "Thankful Thursday" is a tradition of bloggers. I forgot to write mine yesterday so it's going to be a thankful day after Thursday!

I am most thankful for my HUSBAND! Seriously Justin is amazing. not only is he working hard in law school, but throughout it all he makes time for me and still surprises me. Here is a list of some things he does I am so greatful for:

1: He bakes me goodies!! Since being here in Seattle he has baked me an apple pie (he even made the crust from scratch!), oatmeal cookies, and occassionly dinner, e.g., tonight he made fried rice as I got ready for our date!

2: He loves ice cream as much as I do! We always have one tub of ice cream in the freezer and he always lets me pick the flavor.

3: When I feel sick and dizzy he lets me sleepwhile he cooks, does all the dishes, and he even does the laundry!

4: When my muscles are really sore he gives me a massage every time I ask for one!

These are just a few of the reasons I love Justin so much and am so thankful for all he does for me!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

2008-08-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

On Monday night Justin and I went to a Seattle Mariners baseball game with our friends Emily, Logan, and their baby Sophie. Logan is in law school with Justin. It was sooo fun! On this particular Monday they had one section reserved for Latter Day Saints. Because we bought the LDS tickets we got a FREE Mariners hat that said "LDS night" on the back of the hat. How cool and absolutely hilarious!

Instead of the usual hot dogs during the game we brought a DELUXE picnic! Bread, cheeses, summer sausage, pita chips and hummus, and of course chocolate!!! Sophie loved the twixes in particular. we gave her one to hold in each hand and taunted her with a third. She got so confused and tried to pick up the third one only to drop the first one in her hand.

At the beginning of the ninth inning the Mariners were down by one so we all left thinking the game was over. WRONG! The Mariners tied the game in the ninth inning 2-2 and ended up winning in the 11th inning 4-2! GO MARINERS!!!! Maybe next time we will stay to see their amazing comeback.